Film Review
Celui qui doit mourir was the second film that
director Jules Dassin made in France - after the influential noir masterpiece
Du rififi chez les homes (1955). At
the time, Dassin was effectively forced into exile in Europe to escape anti-Communist
persecution that was rampant across the United States in the 1950s. Despite being
one of his lesser known films,
Celui qui doit mourir
stands as one of Dassin's most ambitious and humanist works - a powerful, intensely
ironic retelling of the Gospel in 1920s Greece, based on novel “Christ Recrucified” by
Nikos Kazantzakis.
The film features some notable actors of the period, including Jean Servais, Maurice
Ronet and Gert Fröbe, as well as Dassin's wife-to-be, Melina Mercouri. However,
it is Pierre Vaneck who is most memorable, as the sympathetic hero destined for the (metaphorical)
crucifix. Dassin combines his own natural film noir style with some shades of neo-realism,
making this a pretty hard-edged, unsentimental morality drama (with a few suggestions
of black comedy along the way). The moral of the film is that human beings
never learn and are destined to repeat the errors of the past, but there is also more
than a hint of anti-Church mockery. The film's central irony - which Dassin draws
out so well - is that it is those who are most familiar with the teachings of Christ who
end up rejecting and then executing a second Christ.
© James Travers 2005
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Jules Dassin film:
La Legge (1959)
Film Synopsis
In the 1920s, with Greece is under Turkish occupation, the inhabitants of a small town
are making preparations for the annual Passion play. Manolios, a shepherd with a
crippling stammer is cast as Jesus, whilst a prostitute is given the role of Mary Magdalene.
The town is visited by a convoy of refugees from a neighbouring village which was sacked
by the Turks. Fearing that any show of kindness towards these refugees will upset
the delicate peace with the Turks, the town's patriarch has them driven away. The
idealistic Manolios manages to convince some of the townspeople to have pity on the refugees,
and one man, Michelis, allows them to stay on land inherited from his father. Furious,
the patriarch persuades his Turkish masters to deal with Manolios and his misguided followers…
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.